In Which You and I
by DethronedLady
Summary: Akira recently become aware of the fact that he's lived a very sheltered, go-centered life. Now he tries to figure out things like love, lust, and homosexuality, and just how they apply to him and a certain rival of his.
1. Default Chapter

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Title: In Which You and I

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Rating: PG

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Warning: This is Shounen-ai (obviously, if you read the summery you'd know that) And if you don't know what that is, I'm sure if you keep reading you'll figure it out.

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Disclaimer: If I owned Hikaru no Go the blatant infatuation Hikaru and Akira have with each other would actually go somewhere.

Chapter One: In which Akira learns

I suppose you could say it all started when my girlfriend dumped me. Well, more accurately, it was the things that she said. And now that I think back on it, she had every justification.

I didn't really like Tomoko. But at the time I didn't know that liking someone was a criteria for dating them. I was seventeen, and she asked me out. I figured that at seventeen, having a girlfriend was the proper thing to do, so I said yes. I figured that was all I really had to do and everything would be fine.

But then one day she got really mad at me.

She was really annoyed when I met her for our date. I was a little late, but I explained to her it was because the game had run late. So we sat there eating our lunch in a tense surrounding. Since I didn't really have anything to say to her and she was to busy glaring at me to say anything, I pulled out the issue of _Weekly Go_ I had picked up before I met up with her and started reading.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Shindou won his match against the 5-dan."

"That's it!" She exclaimed unexpectedly, slamming her hands on the table and jumping up. "I am so sick of hearing about _Shindou,_ and I'm sick of hearing about _Go. _Do you even know what day it is?"

I blinked, trying to follow her mental leaps. "Umm…the twenty-first?"

"It's our anniversary! Our one month anniversary? Do you even remember when we started dating?"

I had enough sense to figure out that 'No, should I?' would be a bad response, so I just looked up at her and stared blankly at her.

"Oh, for the love of God! I knew you weren't _in_ _love_ with me, but you don't even think about me! All you think about is Go and Shindou Hikaru. Well, this is it Touya Akira, I am _not_ putting up with this anymore. If you want to date someone who interests you, go date Shindou!"

I blinked again. "Date… Shindou?" I said, very confused. "But he's a boy…"

This was probably not the answer she was looking for. She threw up her hands in the air. "I didn't believe my friends when they said it, but now I'm sure of it, you really are gay." She turned around and stomped angrily a way.

I stared at the spot she'd left, still very confused. "I'm what?" I wanted to call back to her and ask her what exactly 'gay' was and if it was possible for a boy to date another boy, but with the unerring instincts of a Go player, I decided that this was not the best move to make.

So I decided to look it up in the dictionary. 'Gay' was defined as "_adj._ **gay·er,** **gay·est **1. Of, relating to, or having a sexual orientation to persons of the same sex. 2.Showing or characterized by cheerfulness and lighthearted excitement; merry. 3.Bright or lively, especially in color: _a gay, sunny room._" Given her comments, and figuring that I had never really given her the impression that I was a particularly 'merry' kind of person, she clearly thought I had a  
"sexual orientation to persons of the same sex."

Well. This certainly changed things. A lot of things. Why hadn't someone told me _earlier_ that I was gay. That might have saved me a lot of trouble. But then I got really confused, because I didn't know that I had a "sexual orientation" to begin with, so how was I supposed to know if it went to girls or boys? And if there were people out there who were gay, how come no one ever mentioned it before?

And then I started realizing that there was a whole world outside of Go that I really wasn't familiar with. And that if I wanted to know what my "sexual orientation" was I'd have to figure out what exactly that even _meant_ because there was a limit as to how far a dictionary could tell me.

I thought very hard on a lot of things and finally thought about something else that Tomoko had said before she stomped off angrily. I was thinking so hard about all the questions that I had that I didn't even notice Ashiwara-san sit down next to me.

"Akira-kun!" He said cheerfully. "You're sure concentrating hard or something. Did you just play a difficult game?"

I looked up at the older man and then focused my eyes on him completely. Yes… Ashiwara-san would be the perfect person to ask my questions to. "Ashiwara-san, what does it mean to be in love with someone? How do you know if you are?"

I was treated with the rare opportunity of seeing my friend look completely slack-jawed and dumbfounded. "Wh-what?"

"In love. I remember vaguely people talking about it, and it was in some of the movies Tomoko would take me to. So what does it mean?"

"Where on earth is this coming from?" Ashiwara-san said, still clearly surprised. "This isn't at all like you, Akira-kun."

I shrugged. "Tomoko said some things before she broke up with me, so now I'm thinking about them."

"Tomoko broke up with you?" Concern spread across his face. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" I said frowning.

"Because… oh never mind." He shook his head. "How do you know you're in love, eh? Well, you never did ask easy questions Akira-kun, and if I can't answer your questions on Go I guess I'll try to answer your questions about life. Let's see… well, love is a deep emotion you feel for people. Like, you love your parents, right?"

"Of course."  
"But being _in_ love is different from that. You know you're in love with someone when you they're all you think about, when the thought of them is behind everything you do. When just seeing them makes you happy, and if they disappear from your life it makes you sad. When someone speaks badly about the person that you love you get angry, and when something good happens to that person you feel pleased like it happened to you… does this help?"  
I nodded. So, Tomoko was right, by the sounds of it, I _was_ in love with Shindou. Huh. Interesting.

"Well, that's the main part anyway. And then there's… you know…" he blushed slightly. "When you… lust after them and stuff." He mumbled.  
I frowned. "Lust?" I looked back at my dictionary and wondered if Ashiwara-san would take it amiss if I should suddenly start looking up his word.

"When you're attracted to them." I continued to frown at him, indicating that I was still confused. "You know…when you want to…that is, when you get the urge to…"

I waited patiently for him to finish but it really didn't seem like he was going to. "The urge to do what?"

"Akira-kun." Ashiwara-san said in a slightly whining voice. "You know what I mean."

"No, I don't!"

"Didn't your father ever talk to you about sex?"

I frowned. "My father talked to me about Go."

"…"

"They mentioned it in school." I said helpfully. "In the ninth grade, in health class. It's what makes children."

"…Akira-kun… haven't you ever… wanted to have sex?"

"No… why would I want to have children? I'm only seventeen."

"Oh… my…" Ashiwara-san shifted uncomfortably. "What the heck do you do in your spare time?"  
"I play Go. Don't you?"

"Well, yes, but I mean, haven't you ever.. I mean at night, don't you… this really isn't an appropriate conversation for us to be having." He finished.

"What? Why not? Why isn't it appropriate?"  
He shook his head. "Someone really needs to talk to your father about raising sexually-repressed boys…" he muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"Never mind. Look, Akira-kun, if you want I have some… books… that you can look at, and those might answer your questions."

"But… I have other questions…"

"I'm sure you do. Just come by my apartment later, and I'll give you the… books… just don't tell your father OK?"

I was so confused. "Ummm….OK… but after I look at the books will you answer my questions?"

He was bright red at this point. "Don't you have someone else?"

I thought about it. "Well, my father. Or Ogata-san."

"Yeah… asking them would probably be a bad idea. You don't have anyone closer to your own age?"

Well… Shindou. But since I was apparently in love with him it asking him about these things would be a bad idea. And really, it wasn't the kind of conversations we usually had. "You're the closest friend I have to my age, Ashiwara-san."

He sighed. "Ok. Yes, afterwards you can ask me all the questions you want." He gave me a funny look. "You know Akira-kun… you're the finest Go player of your age. You're probably the best thing that's happened to Go in a really long time."  
"Thank you." I said politely.

"But… don't you think maybe Go has taken up a little too much of your life? I mean, at your age, you should be doing a lot of other things. Fun kid things. I'd never really thought about it before, but God Akira-kun, you don't even dress your own age. You're like a miniature adult. Who does nothing but play Go."

"And that's… bad… why?"

Author's Note: Ahh, poor, confused little Akira. He always struck me as someone who was a slow developer in life. He also seems very sheltered, thus, why he doesn't know about things like homosexuality and, well, sex in general. Ok, so it's not exactly realistic for someone to be seventeen and not know about these things, but this is my world, ok?

Oh, and the definition of "gay" came from I just thought I should mention that. In case anyone was wondering, or whatever…


	2. Chapter Two: In which Akira questions

Chapter Two: In which Akira questions

Well. Ashiwara-san certainly had interesting…books. Some were clearly some kind of medical manuals. Some were labeled as "romance" novels. Others were magazines that he insisted belonged to his roommate. I wasted a lot of time just trying to figure out why magazines of naked women were made before I turned my attention to the more useful material. After about three hours of flipping through everything I'd been given I was going through some kind of information overload.

So, people dated because they wanted to. That much I gathered from all the books. People were supposed to get…urges… and they were supposed to fall in love.

It was actually incredibly distressing. Because I was thinking about what Ashiwara-san had told me before he gave the hasty retreat away from my table. About not being a normal kid for my age. I was beginning to realize just how true that was. What had I been missing, all those years devoting my life to Go? Furthermore, why wasn't I like other people? Not to mention that I still wasn't clear on the whole "boys dating boys" thing. Some of the medical books talked about… various things… that "homosexuals" did for…pleasure. But I was still lost on what that all meant.

I sat at a table in the backroom of my father's Go salon. I politely refused offers to games and just stared accusingly at the Go board. What had it taken from me?

"Oi! Touya!" My head whipped forward at the familiar voice as Shindou bounced into the room and sat in the chair across from me. "I stopped by for a game. Do you want to?"

I stared intently at my rival. Attraction. That's what Ashiwara-san mentioned, and what the books all talked about. Was I attracted to Shindou? He was good-looking, that was true. But then, I supposed Tomoko had been good looking to, in her own way. And I clearly wasn't in love with her so..

"Touya? Hello? Earth to Touya?"

I snapped back to attention. "What? Oh… sorry. Sure, we can play a game." Absently I Nigired and then took the white stones. Shindou played into the lower hoshi but I wasn't really paying attention. "Shindou… have you ever dated someone?"

"What?" Shindou exclaimed. He looked at me funny. "Where did that come from?"  
I was getting that question a lot lately. "It's just a question." What I really wanted to know was if he ever got "urges" but since that wasn't really something one asked his eternal rival I had to settle for the other question.

He scratched his head. "Err… not exactly. I go out sometimes with Akari, but that's more friend stuff. I don't really have the time to date. Why, have you?"

I shrugged. "I suppose so. I had a girlfriend."

"_What?!" _Shindou exclaimed. "How did _you_ get a girlfriend before me?"

I scowled at him. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. It's just Waya's dating Morishita-Sensei's daughter, and Isumi-san is dating some girl he met. I just assumed you never had time either." He frowned. "Man, maybe I _should _find a girlfriend, if everyone else has one."  
"No!" I exclaimed involuntarily. "I mean, I don't have a girlfriend either. And we weren't really dating, I don't think. I didn't even like her much. She thinks I spend too much time thinking about y-, Go. I spend too much time on Go. As I should. As you should." I stopped myself before I started babbling too badly. For some reason the thought of Shindou with a girlfriend really bothered me. Especially if he were to do some of the things that they talked about in the books.

It hit me suddenly that maybe I was jealous of whoever Shindou would date. If that was the case… then I guess I really was in love with him.

He looked pacified by my ramblings. "Yeah, that's true. Go takes up a lot of time. I don't know how the others handle it. I guess it's because Waya doesn't go to school."

I nodded absently, and stared at the other boy. "Do you want to date someone?" I asked, extremely tense. For some reason my nerves were on fire, like I was about to play someone really strong in Go. I wanted to know the answer, but at the same time I was scared of it.

Shindou tilted his head. "Yeah… I guess so. Sometimes. It would be nice to go out with someone and enjoy the kinds of things that couples do. Eat ramen together, hold hands, tell your secrets to, that kind of thing." He blushed a little then, and I got the random thought that he looked very cute when he blushed. "Why are you asking these things, Touya?"

I sighed. "I'm just trying to answer some things about myself, that's all."

"Oh? Do you want to date someone?"

I opened my mouth to answer "No, of course not" when I realized that I was only basing that off of the "dates" that I had gone on with Tomoko. I thought about what Shindou had mentioned. Eating together. Well, Tomoko and I had done that, but it wasn't really fun. But those few times I ate with Shindou in the middle of our pro games were really enjoyable. Holding hands? That might be nice too. We didn't do a lot of physical contact in my family, so that might be a really nice change. Especially with another Go player who wouldn't complain about the calluses on my fingers. Tell my secrets to? It would be nice to trust someone like that. And it would be nice to be trusted like that. I still wanted to know all of Shindou's secrets. Heck, I might even date him just so I could learn them all.

"Yeah." I answered, surprising myself. "I guess I _would_ like to date someone. That is, as long as it was someone that I liked."

"Well, duh." Shindou answered. "Why would you date someone you didn't like?"

"Because," I said defensively, "it's proper."  
Shindou shrugged. "Screw proper. It doesn't have any place in dating. Are you going to play or not?"

"What? Oh." I looked back at our neglected game. "Right." I placed a stone down.

Author's Note: Wee! Hikaru was in this one! This was a short chapter, but whatever. I'm not even sure I'm connecting everything very smoothly. Oh well. This is actually more or less my first stab at writing Fanfiction, I usually can't write someone else's characters very well. I umm… hope I'm doing OK? I also kinda hope I finish. I'm only going to keep writing for as long as inspiration for the story keeps coming. And who knows when that stuff runs out.

To Reviewers: (I always get annoyed at this part when I'm reading Fanfiction, but then when I comment and the author answers back I feel all special so… bear with me)

Mystic Wolf: I'm glad you think so! Truthfully, I wanted to put it in Romance/Comedy, but I was to self-confident to consider my work "humorous." I thought it might be presumptuous of me. But I'll change it now I guess…if I can figure out how…

Tian: Hmm. Now you have me all worried about making him seem stupid… I guess I'll try and work on that. I'm just kinda going with the flow.

Kaori-Chan: Eh heh… I know my summery sucks. I hate writing summaries, but I didn't want to be one of those people who writes "I hate writing summaries so just read it" so I just wrote what was on the top of my head.

Anyway, thank you all for reviewing! I hope you liked this chapter.


	3. In Which Akira realizes

Chapter Three:

In which Akira realizes

I can look back on it with some sense of irony that females were so pivotal in my realizing how I felt about Shindou. Or maybe it's only ironic to me. Either way, running into Fujisaki Akari in the park was also one of those "deciding moments" of a lifetime.

"Touya-kun!" I didn't recognize the female voice at first. It took me a few moments to register the cheerful girl in front of me as the one who I'd seen with Shindou at a couple of times.

"It's nice to see you here."

"Yes." I said politely. "It is nice to see you as well."

She giggled. "It's almost strange that we don't talk to each other much. But then, I don't really talk to any of Hikaru's professional go friends."

I looked at her in surprise. For one, I wasn't expecting to be referred to as Shindou's friend. We were rivals. She should get the difference right. And furthermore, I just realized she was the first person I'd ever heard refer to Shindou by his first name. Even those friends he had from back when they were Inseis together referred to him as Shindou.

"You… know Shindou very well, then?"

"Hikaru? Of course! We've known each other since we were really little. I probably know him better then anyone."  
Oh she so did not just say that…

"_What?!"_ I exclaimed angrily. Her eyes widened in shock as the increased volume but that didn't stop me. "_You_ know him better then anyone? _You_? Do you know his Go? Do you know when his matches are? Who he's going to play? Do you know how he's going to play? When you play do you know what kind of moves he would make? Do you know his strength? Do you know the secret behind his strength? Do you the two different sides to his Go?" At this point I became painfully aware of a) the fact that I was yelling at a girl that I barely knew and b) I was starting to get people staring at us.

And as scared as Fujisaki must have been to have some guy _she _barely knew yelling at her, that didn't stop her from yelling back. Which really, wasn't a smart move at all.

"What. Is. Your. Problem? For God's sake, _Touya_, he has a life outside of Go!""Go is his life!!" I yelled back. This stupid, absolutely _ignorant_ girl claims to know Shindou better then anyone and she didn't even understand _that? _How dare she make that presumption? How dare she… what was I thinking?

"I'm sorry." I muttered tightly. "I have to leave now."  
"Good!" She yelled angrily.  
I turned and walked away as fast as I could without making it seem overly obvious that I was trying to get away as fast as possible.

"Shindou." I muttered to myself. _Hikaru. No. Not Hikaru. Definitely Shindou. He could never be anything but Shindou. That what I refer to him as a Go player, as a rival, and that is the most important thing to either of us._

What on earth had I been doing? Yelling at a girl like that. I never yell. Never. It wasn't proper or polite. Well, Ok, I yelled at Shindou all the time. But that was different. And, yes, admittedly, I have a habit of yelling at people when it comes to Shindou. Like, not to underestimate him and things like that. But all in all, yelling at people wasn't in my nature.

And that's when it hit me. I mean, really hit me.

That I was in love with Shindou Hikaru.

It wasn't just yelling at people, Shindou made me do a lot of things that were out of character for me. Things that I was raised to be the correct thing to do.

There wasn't anyone else that could summon such, well, _passionate_ emotions from me. Things like anger and fear and…

….love…

Shindou…

This was most certainly going to change things.

Authors Note: Yup, another short one. But an important one. And a short update is better then no update at all. I think. Or maybe it's worse. What do I know.

To reviewers:

(Since I did it with the first chapter, and otherwise it just wouldn't be fair)

Storm- I'm glad you're liking it. That makes me happy

Kaori-Chan- So I guess a sucky review is better then nothing at all. But I should still fix this one. It is pretty bad.

Infinitylight- Hi! Here's the next chapter. Hee.. Obviously. I'll try to update faster.

GreenEyes7- Wee, I love Ashiwara! I want to torture him some more. I think I shall do so… And yeah… dates should be as simple as Hikaru makes it sound. But then, Hikaru hasn't technically been on a date, so what does he know?

Okita- Here is the more. I'm glad I was going through Hikaru no Go withdrawals, otherwise it wouldn't have come

Cookie krumble - Akira is a very calculative person. At least, he seems that way to me. I mean, he plays Go. It makes sense he'd apply that way of thinking to everything.

Eikou- I actually have everything all planned out. I just get lazy, and busy. … if that's possible to exist at the same time. But that I means I hope to keep on posting.

Thanks for all the reviews! It makes me very happy. Plus, it guilts me into writing more. Which is always a plus when dealing with the lazy.


	4. In which Akria hurts

Chapter Four:

In which Akira hurts

So I was in love with Shindou. I was pretty sure anyway. I hadn't quite figured out the dynamics of "attraction" or "lust" yet, but I figured that would come with time. The only problem was I didn't know how _he_ felt, since I'd gathered enough information to realize that homosexuality wasn't a common thing. It was unpleasant to think that one person could be in love with someone but the other might not be. It was even worse to think that he might not feel attraction for the same gender at all.

But, as I thought about it, I figured I hadn't even known I was gay until recently. So it was quite possible that he didn't know either. But for that to really apply I still needed to learn more about same sex relationships, and I had absolutely no idea where to go about learning that.

I came to the conclusion that I should take this like a Go game. There was no reason that the various dynamics of life should be any different from the dynamics of Go. It was just a matter of perspective that's all.

If Ashiwara-san was right (and I had reason to believe that he was) than there was a whole world out there that I had no clue about. IE, it was like a blank Go board. That means that the key to learning about this world was all in the first move. And there were dozens of places where I could start, but it came down to a territory issue. I couldn't take on the whole world, obviously, so that means I needed to focus on where to build my territory. Lust was one issue. But a very minor one. Shindou was the big issue, thus, I should build all my territory around him.

Set with this decision I immediately began to execute my plan. I found out when Shindou's next game was (I would have been looking anyway, I always keep track of his games) and waited patiently for him outside of the Go institute.

"Touya!" I heard his surprised voice whipped my head into his direction.

"Shindou." I said happily. "Did you-"

"What did you say to Akari?!?"  
I blinked. "What?"

He stormed over to me, fuming. An angry Shindou was a Shindou that I was very familiar with, but this seemed different somehow. "What did you say to her?! She came over to my house the other day and was _very _ upset! All I got out of her was that she met you and you were mean to her!! What's your problem?!"

"She was at your house?" I said, disgruntled. I've never been to Shindou's house…

"Touya!"  
"What? Oh, right. The Akari thing." I shrugged nonchalantly, "nothing much. She was being annoying." I didn't exactly want to recount the conversation to him. Not yet anyway. Maybe after we were a couple.

"Don't call Akari annoying!!" He yelled. He stopped and thought for a second. "Well, she is annoying. But only I can call her that!! You can't be mean to her for it!"

This… was very upsetting. I didn't like him yelling at me _over her._ Yes, we often came to fights at the drop of a hat, and that was just fine. It reaffirmed our rivalry. But he shouldn't be yelling at me about _her._ That was just wrong.

"Don't tell me how I should treat people!" I snapped back. "It was my conversation with her and it has nothing to do with _you._" OK, that was a bald face lie. He didn't need to know that.

"Akari's my _friend_ Touya. Friends. You get that? When someone upsets your friend it's your business."

"I-" I wanted to yell at him, I really did. He didn't have any right to make me feel this way. But I couldn't get the words out. Instead a swallowed and choked out the words, "I apologize. Tell Fujisaki-san that I am sorry for my misconduct." And with that I took a sharp turn and walked away.

I… don't have any people like that. Friends, that I would feel so passionate over. That's not the kind of relationship I have with Ashiwara-san or any of the other students under father's study group. The only person I felt like that was…Shindou.

But… I wasn't the only one for him. He had other people. He had friends. What if I wasn't anything to him?

The unhappy thoughts followed me throughout the rest of the evening. Which wasn't a good thing considering it was the study night for Father's group. So I sat there, unusually quiet during the games and only half concentrating on what was being said.

"-homosexual marriage in America." My attention was immediately grabbed as I whipped my head over to Ogata-san who had just lit up a cigarette and leaned back for conversation.

"What did you say?" I demanded sharply.

"I said 'I can't believe they're still debating homosexual marriage over in America. It's absolutely disgusting that they'd even consider letting those perverts corrupt the sanctity of marriage."

My heart thumped faster. What? Perverts?

"Oh I know." One of the newer members put in. "I can't believe they're debating such things out in the open like that, it's embarrassing. Such filth should be kept quiet."

"They're just doing it for attention," another member said. "All queers like attention."

"I agree." Ogata-san said. "They could be straight if they chose to be, but they don't because they're sick."

"Now, Ogata-san…" Ashiwara-san looked very unhappy, "I don't quite think…"

Ogata-san just waved his cigarette around. "Spare me your sentimentality Ashiwara."

I stopped listening. All I could hear was the sound of my own heart beat and the ringing bells of realization. So this is why I'd never been told about homosexuality before… because it was wrong.

What I felt was… wrong.

It felt like someone had shoved their hand into my gut, grabbed, and twisted. Not only existed the possibility that Shindou didn't like me, but even if he did, it was wrong. Sick. Perverted. And nothing could ever happen.

Ever.

Author's Note: Another late chapter… but hey, I'm getting them done. This chapter was hard to write, obviously, because it was so serious and damaging to poor Akira's fragile psyche. But! My hypothetical next chapter will be much much better! It'll be longer too.

Oh. And to all the Ogata fans, I apologize for making him be such a dick. I just figure that he's not a real open-minded person.

To my reviewers:

MidnightCrest: yeah… I know my summary sucks, you don't have to worry about offending me, it's all be said before. I'll try and write a new one, but it's so hard! But I'm glad you think my story's better then the summery. That makes me happy.

Osvark: Awww, thanks. I went and typed the first half of this story after reading your review. Ehh… I don't think it was worth the wait, but definitely, the next chapter will be.

Lasaire: Ok, now I can't help but think of how Hikaru and Akira would use Go games for that. Thanks a lot. Hmm. I wonder… no, can't use it. I'm trying to stay a way from writing hard core yaoi. But I can pretend I did.

Ryogas-Baby-Gurl: Wee, I wrote the last half of this after your review. Can't refuse an order, now can I? You're very dedicated to choose updating over homework. Although, for me it's more laziness then anything.


	5. In which Akira agonizes

Chapter Five:

In which Akira agonizes

If there's one thing I've learned about Go, is that sometimes well thought out plans just don't work. It doesn't happen to _me_ often mind you, mostly just when I play against the higher dan players. It happens mostly when you get trapped in a situation, and the only way out of it is this drawn out process. You count in all the factors you can think of, where your opponent might move, what territory you have to protect, and you place your stone down ready to begin a sequence of moves that will lead to your safety.

But then your opponent moves somewhere you weren't expecting. He's not responding the way that you had counted on him to respond, and then all of your well, drawn out plans are made completely useless.

I was beginning to realize that life is a lot like that.

Because, no matter how much I tried to avoid Shindou for the next few weeks, life decided to place a stone that I wasn't counting on.

"Look Touya! We're here!" Shindou pointed to the old house in front of our group and happily bounded over to inspect the area.

"Oi, Shindou-kun, don't act so excited." A Go player from the same study group as Shindou said. I think his name was Saeki-san.

"But I've never been to this part of Japan before!" Shindou whined.

I just shook my head and wondered how these things happened to me.

It was a Go tour around Japan, helping to expand relations with other Go institutes across the nature. Shindou, Saeki-san, Ashiwara-san, myself, and a few other pros had been randomly selected to tour across the Institutes and tutor various insei. After a long day of travel and tutoring games we were finally resting at the hostel that they had reserved for us.

Shindou ran up the stairs of the rather rickety looking hostel and leapt inside. I sighed and slowly walked after him. _I shouldn't be here_, I thought. _I shouldn't be around Shindou… it's wrong… it's not proper…_

"Hey Touya! Look at all the pictures!"

"They are nice aren't they?" A crackly voice said from no where.

Shindou jumped and yelled out a loud yelp. "Aa! A goblin!!"

"Shindou!" I exclaimed, utterly mortified. The old lady who had appeared seemingly from no where let out a cackling laugh. She was short, rather ugly, and well, goblin like. I blushed and bowed deeply to the woman who was obviously our hostess. "Please excuse my friend, he wasn't taught manners as a child."

"Hey!" Shindou said indignantly. "I was toomoghlahfph," Saeki-san wisely put his hand over my rival's mouth.

"Hoo hoo, no worries about that. This does look like the kind of place goblins would show up, now doesn't it?" She said with complete mirth. For some reason I got the vague impression of Kuwarabara-san. She rubbed her chin and held a devious glimmer in her eye. "As a matter of fact, this place happens to be haunted by ghosts."

"Really?" Shindou said, managing to pull down Saeki-san's hand.

"Oh, my yes. It happened, hmm, ten, twelve years ago, was it?"

Shindou's eyes went wide. "What happened?"

"An escape convict happened upon this hostel some time ago, and knowing that the police were soon to be after him, decided to wreck his horrible anger once more, and he _slaughtered_ all the people sleeping inside. And then, as sirens filled his ears, threatening to take him back to the place he belonged, he _hung_ himself. In this very room." Shindou gulped and looked around nervously. "But that's not all… they say he and his victims live in eternal anguish, walking the halls for blood vengeance, always wanting to add more to their company. Hoo hoo. It's a dangerous time at night, I can assure you of that. These ghosts will do anything for their love of blood. I'd be careful if I were you boys."

I fought the urge to roll my eyes and bowed again, "thank you for you concern." I said calmly. "But we would like our rooms now."

"Oh yes, of coarse."

Settled in my room I collapsed in my bed. I sighed heavily. Back home I always slept on futons, so I was never used to the westernized beds that were often provided in hostels and hotel rooms. I never got any sleep when I traveled for Go matches. I should learn to carry my own futon around, then I-

Loud knocking on my door interrupted my thoughts. I frowned, because I wasn't expecting anyone, but went and opened the door anyway. A very ruffled Shindou burst his way into my room clutching his stuff, "Touya! Let me sleep with you!"  
"_Wh-what_?!" I exclaimed. Damn those romance films for corrupting my thoughts…

"No! Why?"

"Plleeeeeeassseeeee Touya." Shindou begged. "The, I don't want the ghosts to get me…" "Shindou!" I said, exasperated. "Don't tell me you took the old lady seriously, did you? You can't seriously still believe in ghosts?"  
"But… but Touya, _ghosts do exist!!_ And I for one, don't want to meet up with any bloodthirsty ones."

"Shindou, stop acting childish." The traitorous part of the back of my mind thought, '_he looks so cute when he's scared.'_ "Go sleep in your own room. Or somewhere else. Not here."

"I'm not going to be able to sleep by myself!!" Shindou exclaimed. "And Saeki-san is already sharing a room with Ashiwara-san, and they both said it would be far too crowded with three people, and I don't know any of the other pros that well, and Touya you just _have_ to let me sleep with you!!"

Fighting the urge to bang my head on the wall, dozens of different thoughts were flying rapidly through my mind. First and most dominantly, that I really, really wanted Shindou here. And that I was glad he wouldn't be sharing a room with Saeki-san, in fact, I didn't want him sharing a room with anyone else. But I was also thinking that it would be completely improper to have him share the room with me, given the fact that I was in love with him and that was wrong.

"Come on Touya, don't be a jerk!"

"Fine." I muttered. "Be a baby. Stay here. I don't care." I always seemed to be lying to him…

"Yay! Thank you!" He pounced towards me and gave me a very large hug. "I'll find a way to pay you back some how, I promise!" He let go and went about setting his stuff around my room. "Good thing the bed's big enough for the two of us, right?"

"Yeah, good thing…" I murmured, I was still in a daze. _He hugged me. He put his arms around me and he hugged me. He smelled so nice…_ Then what he said finally registered. "Wait, What?! Bed? We're not sharing a bed!!"

"You're going to make me sleep on the_ floor?_" Shindou exclaimed. "That's crazy! The bed's so big you'll hardly notice me at all!!"

This… is not good. "Shindou, I don't think it's very-" I stopped in mid-sentence.

Shindou had begun to unbutton his shirt.

You'd think that, him being a boy and all and not really possessing anything I hadn't already seen on myself, the simple act wouldn't be such a big deal. But for some reason I was utterly captivated and lost all train of thought. I hadn't ever seen Shindou without a shirt on… he looked nice. Why does he have muscles? Go players shouldn't have chest muscles… but they are _very_ nice…

I blushed hotly, and looked a way. I felt dizzy. This… this was very odd. I wasn't sure if I liked this. It was… different. My skin felt so hot and my heart was beating faster then usual. What was this?

It was after he put his night shirt on and when he started taking off his pants that it hit me. _'Oh!! This is lust! I'm lusting after him!!' _I was mildly impressed by the fact that I was able to figure it out all on my own, but I was more dismayed by the implications of this all. That, and the fact that certain parts of my body were doing things they had never done before and it was most disconcerting.

"Well?" Shindou said impatiently. I looked up at him again. In equal parts relief and disappointment, I found him to be fully clothed. "What were you saying?"

"What?" I blinked. "I have no idea." I had completely forgotten what I was going to say to him. I looked at the bed and gave an inward sigh. It _was_ a rather large bed. In fact, the room was clearly designed to have two guests stay in it. "Fine." I said grudgingly. "We can share the bed."

Shindou grinned. "Thanks!" With that he plopped inside the bed and pulled the covers over him.

I really wanted to smack him. He shouldn't behave so carefree while I was in such turmoil. I slipped under the covers. "Shindou?"

"Mm. Yeah?" He was clearly tired after the long day. It sounded like he was already half asleep.

"Do you really still believe in ghosts?"

"'course I do."

"Evil ghosts out to kill people?"

He yawned widely, his eyes already closed. "Don't know. Never met any evil ghosts. But I figure there's probably some out there, you know? If there are good ghosts and all."

"There are good ghosts?" I said, amused.

"mmhmm. Nice go playing ghosts."

I laughed. "Yeah, go playing ghosts must be nice." I thought about what he said earlier and frowned. "Wait… does that mean you've met a go playing ghost?"

Silence.

"Shindou?" I looked down at the other boy and much to my annoyance, found him already asleep. "Shindou!" I let a noise of frustration. The nerve…

My face softened as I watched him slowly breathe in and out. He…really did look very cute while he was asleep. Soft. You couldn't tell by looking at him now that he was such a loud mouth idiot. It made me want to-

I turned away from him and faced the other direction. I did not just want to _hug_ him. I don't want to hug him. I closed my eyes in determination. I will not hug him. I will not hug him. I will not hug-

A pair of arms wrapped around me and pulled me towards another body. My eyes shot open and my entire body stiffened in surprise. It took me a few deep breaths to work up the courage to look over my shoulder. Shindou had wrapped his arms around me and was pressed up close against my back. He was still asleep.

"_Will never know he's there my foot."_ I thought sourly. Slowly, I closed my eyes again and felt my body slowly relax. I'd never so much as had a stuffed animal as a child, so I certainly wasn't used to being treated as one. But this was nice. A little too nice.

Some time passed before I finally worked up the courage to carefully turn my body around. Now I faced him with his arms around me. He was still sleeping softly, like an angel.

I gently touched his face. _ 'Why do I love you so?"_ I thought. _'Why is it that you are the only one who can do these things to me? Why couldn't you have been female? Heck…. Why couldn't I? Then this would be Ok. Then there wouldn't be a problem. We could be a couple and hold hands and do all the things that you're supposed to do when you're in love. But this isn't proper…_

_Screw proper.'_

I leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips, and never before I had ever done something that felt so unbelievably right.

I knew I'd never have another chance to do this, that I would never do it again. That the next morning I would go on pretending that I didn't love him, and that was fine. At least I would have this one time.

I sighed and closed my eyes. "I love you Shindou." I said softly.

The next morning I left the room earlier then was necessary. I hadn't slept at all last night, just enjoyed the warm presence of Shindou and the nice sensation of his arms around me. He'd held me all throughout the night, which was another reason to leave early. I didn't want him to wake up and realize what he'd been doing. Or realize that I had been letting him. I didn't want to face him after what _I_ had done last night.

But the main reason I left was because I just wanted to clear my head. This was too much for me to handle. It wasn't like a Go game at all. Such complicated emotions weren't involved in a Go match. I took a walk around the hostel grounds, which for all it's creepy atmosphere actually had very nice lands.

This was horrible. I wish things weren't like this. I wish Tomoko had never broken up with me and never told me I was gay. I wish-

I stopped. Blinked. Pinched myself to make sure I didn't fall asleep sometime last night and not realize it, then looked at the clearing again.

Ashiwara-san and Saeki-san were kissing.

Author's Note: Wee!! This chapter was nice and long, yes? I've wanted to do this chapter for very long time. But there are a lot of Notes I need to put in.

First of all, I have absolutely no idea how many Go institutes there are in Japan. I actually got the impression from the manga that there are just two, but oh well. For the sake of my story, let's pretend there are a whole bunch, Ok? And that every now and then they do tours. Yes. Sure.

Second, Touya probably has no problem sleeping in beds. But he does sleep on a futon. So eh, let's go with my creative license.

Third, some of you might have noticed (or maybe no one did, but I still feel obligated to point it out) that the Touya/Shindou in bed together scene bore a rather striking resemblance to a scene that's in K. Sandra Fuhr's web comic, Boy Meets Boy. I am ashamed to say I did not have the genius to make that up, and that I really shouldn't have used it, but it was just too cute to imagine them in that position for me to pass it up. So, please don't yell at me for borrowing it. I made up for my sin by telling you all where it came from. And I further atone for my sin by saying that anyone who likes shounen-ai and haven't read the web comic, you should go read Boy Meets Boy. It's way shibby.

To my reviewers:

Lasaire- Wow, that was a long review. ::rubs head:: Err, thanks for the cultural lesson? And for pointing out my error. I really don't know that much about Japanese culture. But, I shall make it all better, Ok? Next chapter I shall fix things by incorporating some of the things you said. It actually goes well with what I had planned anyway, so thank you.

Hee, it sounds like you have a good plan for their go games. Maybe you should write the story. I would read it anyway. As it is, it's very tempting to do Omake's for this once I'm done. Maybe I will. If I ever finish it, that is. .

Kaori-Chan- Poor Akari… she really is harmless, not even annoying as some other anime females tend to be. But I agree, she should be yelled at more often.

Ryogas-Baby-Gurl- Hee, it wasn't rude to ask at all (at least in my opinion.) As much as I love a good lemon every now and then… this isn't going to be one. Eh heh… I'm actually a very squeamish person. For the longest time I couldn't even write the word "dick." Poor me. I don't know why. I enjoy reading them, just can't write them. But! Someone else could write a lemon for me! That would be nice. I'd like that.

MidnightCrest- Close minded people are stupid. That being said, I'm glad you like my new summery better. Did I change the title? No. Should I? Probably. When I was posting this it was still Untitled, so I thought of a title randomly on the spot. I don't actually like my title either, but I'm going to try and make it fit at the end. If there's an end.

Wherdatcomfrom- I'm glad you've been reading and enjoying. J That makes me happy. And look! More Hikaru in this chapter! Let's hope it stays that way.

GreenEyes7- We all feel for poor Akira. He really should have gotten out more as a child.

Midnight Insanity- Wee! I'm glad you like it. Again with, close minded people are stupid. There won't be any more of those in my story I don't think. Maybe. It depends on where I want to end this.

Bread box- eh heh.. You were the second person to point out my cultural mistake. As I told Lasaire, thank you for that, and I'll make it all better in the next chapter. Hee… Ogata the pedophile… probably not the image he wanted to portray in the anime. Oh well.

Slate Grey- Thank you! And I agree, Akira needs the internet. Or something at any rate. The internet never helped me learn any of the important stuff growing up. Parental controls, you know? I had books. Again with poor me. I was a naive little kid for the longest time. Well, not as long as Akira apparently, but still.


	6. In Which Akira gains an ally

Disclaimer/Warning: This chapter (and some chapters after it) contains a slight crossover with Gravitation, characters of which I do not own. Yeah, I know some people don't like the whole Hikaru/Shuichi being cousins thing, but I for one, find it hilarious. You by no means have to be familiar with Gravitation to understand the fic.

Chapter Six

In which Akira gains an ally

I was always taught that staring was impolite. But given the fact that I was seeing someone I had viewed almost like an older brother make out with another man I will excuse my awed mouth-gaping stare as completely justified. I must have stood there for at least three minutes before Ashiwara-san pulled away with a shocked

"Touya-kun!"

"What?" Saeki-san said, slightly dazed and slightly disgruntled at hearing another man's name coming from his boyfriend's mouth. Then his head seemed to clear as he glanced in my direction and let out a curse. "Touya!"

Yes. That was my name. They were saying my name. Right. I should say something back. I should say something. Or at least, I should close my mouth. There were a lot of bugs flying around this grounds. There. Mouth closed. Next step. Say something.

"Err." Well that was a start.

"Touya-kun… I uh, can explain…" Ashiwara-san started.

"The books already did that." I sand dumbly. I mean really, I knew what he was doing. I wasn't _that_ dense.

"What? No, I mean…"

"Kissing, right? I get kissing. Saw it a lot in movies. Never really saw it with two males though. It still seems like the same principle though. I mean, I guess that makes sense, I don't see why it would be different. But then, it has to be different if it's not proper, right? Say, Ashiwara-san, does Ogata-san know you're doing something so improper? I'm sure he wouldn't like it. Not that you need him to like it. It's not like you need his help or anything. I mean." I stopped. I was babbling. I _never_ babbled. This was embarrassing. And awkward.

"Touya-kun, let's go for a walk." Ashiwara-san said. He touched Saeki-san tenderly and they shared a look. It was a nice look, one that seemed to have a whole conversation in it. Ashiwara-san was saying "Don't worry, I'll calm down the boy having a mental breakdown. Everything will be alright." And Saeki-san was saying "I trust you. Come back soon so we can go back to making out." It was very loving.

That calmed me down. Suddenly my nerves just relaxed and my mind reached a complacent state. Mother and father, formal as they were in most occasions, would sometimes share looks like that. Looks that could speak whole conversations between the couple without ever saying a word. That's when I realized that somewhere along the line I received wrong information, because if Ashiwara-san loved Saeki-san like Father loved mother it seemed proper enough for me.

We walked awkwardly for a few minutes and then Ashiwara-san cleared his throat. "Touya-kun…"

"So this makes you gay, right?" I asked suddenly.

He let out a nervous laughter. "Umm, well. I'd prefer to think of myself as Bisexual. I care more for the person instead of the gender."

I blinked. "What?" 9;"I like both men and women."

_"You can like both?"_ Why does no one tell me these things?  
"Yes. It's possible."

"And you like Saeki-san?"

"Yes." He smiled warmly. "What can I say? He's just so cute. It's irresistible really."

"But… isn't it… wrong? Ogata-san-"

"Forget about what Ogata said." Ashiwara-san sad abruptly. "He and a few of you father's students aren't the most open-minded people. There are a lot of people out there that are like that, Touya-kun. They can't get past their own prejudices to see love for what it is and they give off nothing but hatred.

"It's become rather clear that you don't know much about the world besides what pertains to Go, so let me feel you in on some things Touya-kun. In Japan it's perfectly acceptable to be homosexual, but every now and then you get close-minded people like Ogata that try and bring everyone down. And it varies from country to country as to whether or not it's socially acceptable to like people from the same gender. In some countries it's accepted, in other countries it not only goes against their religion but the law.

"But Touya-kun, it doesn't matter which country accepts what. It doesn't matter what society says is acceptable or not. What matters is what _you_ feel is right. And only you can decide that. You can't let anyone tell you what I feel."

What I felt was right? Shindou was right. Shindou was the only right thing in this world.

"I'm not going to rush you into what you feel or anything, but I-"

Spontaneously I threw my arms around Ashiwara-san and hugged him tightly. "Thank you!" I let go. "I have to go!" I turned and ran back to the cabin, leaving a vary dazed and confused Ashiwara-san behind me. I didn't blame him, nothing about my character thus far ever pegged me for the spontaneous hugging type. I would have to make it up to him later by doing something particularly stodgy and dignified. For now, I wanted to be with Shindou.

"Touya-sensei?" I looked at the intruder with something that must have resembled a death glare because he hastily apologized for interrupting and backed a way.

I went back to my sulking. I was sitting at my father's Go Salon, because there wasn't much else I did with my life. I'd been sulking ever since I got back from the Institute tours.

I had practically ran back to my room where Shindou had still been sleeping. I was fully prepared to wake my sleeping rival up and confess my love to him when I stopped and realized _"What am I doing?"_ Just because it was OK for me to be in love with him didn't necessarily mean that _he _ was in love with _me._

This problem had (justifiably) put me in a sour mood. If he wasn't in love with me then me confessing my love to him would only cause problems. He might laugh at me, for one thing. Which would be horrible. Or he'd feel uncomfortable around me and would stop coming to the salon. That would be even worse.

Grr. This was so stupid! Everything was better when I didn't realize my feelings for him. They were simple then. Yes, I realize that a Go player preferring things simple is a bit of a conundrum but this was different! I didn't like this.

I glared at the go board in front of me. _This is all your fault._ I thought. _Yeah you. I played Go instead of learning about sex and now I'm dysfunctional._ I stood up suddenly. "I'm going out." I announced. The go players around me flinched at my tone of voice.

I walked out of the salon at a brisk pace, hugging my arms tight to my chest. Maybe I should forget this whole love thing. It's not like I needed it for the first seventeen years of my life, I didn't need it now. I could just find some girl, marry her, do the proper thing and raise a family, play go for the rest of my life. Yeah. That sounded like fun. Like a bullet to my brain.

"Ewwiee. Let go of me." I heard a familiar voice laugh out in the air. It struck me right to the heart.

I looked up to my surroundings. I was in front of the Go Institute. I thought back and realized that I knew Shindou had a game today. My sub-conscious must have taken me to where he was.

My heart stopped and then plummeted as I looked up at him. He was laughing and blushing slightly as he was half-heartedly swatting someone away.

Someone who had their arms around him, hugging him fiercely.

A _male_ someone.

The boy looked around our age, and had absurdly reddish pink hair. And his_ clothes_. He was wearing short- very short- yellow pants and a red shirt that only reached a few inches above his belly-button. He had a gauzy yellow jacked over the shirt.

And he was hugging Shindou. _My_ Shindou.

"Shindou!" I called out in a strangled voice.

Both males whipped their heads towards me.

"Touya!" Shindou called out. "What are you doing here?"

The interloper loosened his grip but he still draped himself from behind Shindou, his arms hanging loosely around his neck. "Hmm." He eyed me with a strange gleam in his eye. "So _you're_ Touya. Akira-kun right?'

I blinked. I wasn't sure what to say in this situation. I _wanted_ to walk over there and drag him away from Shindou. Then preferably, start beating him senseless. Or at least, tear out his hair.

"Yes." I said stiffly. "I was just taking a walk. Did you have a game?"

He nodded. "Yup."

"And he won!" The boy chirped. "Isn't that cool? He won. I mean, Ok, I don't really understand what was happening, and it was really boring and I fell asleep throughout most of it. But he won! At least that's something. Got to love him for that."

Ok. So he professed love for the man _I_ was in love with and insulted Go all in the same breath. Tearing out hair sounded like a good idea. I could probably try punching him too. I'd never done something like that before, but I'm sure I could manage. He didn't look that much tougher then me. In fact, I bet I could-

"Touya, this is my cousin, Shindou Shuichi."

-beat him in a fair, cousin?

"Cousin?" I repeated dumbly. Wait, that sounded suspiciously relieved. Fix that. "I mean, you don't look a lot a like."

"Shuichi's a rock star." Shindou said simply, as if that explained everything.

"I see."

"Yup! I'm the singer in Bad Luck."

"Oh."

The interloper - for cousin or no he _still _had his arms around Shindou - pouted at me. "You haven't heard of us either? Jeez, what's with you Go people? Don't you do anything fun?"

"Go is fun." I said stiffly.

"I mean fun for normal people. Man, I'm so bored here! This is the last time I visit you Hikaru, I want to go back home."

"Hrmph. You just want to go back to your _boyfriend."_

My head snapped up. _Say what?_

Shindou's cousin went dreamy-eyed. "Yuuuuki, I miss you so much." He sniffed and hugged Shindou tighter, "but mean Yuki didn't want to meet my cousin and I have nothing to dooooo."

I (quite generously) overlooked his offending arms on Shindou, "You have a boyfriend?" This gay thing… way more common then I originally had thought. It seems everyone was doing it.

Shindou's cousin finally let go as he blushed and clasped his hands together, off in his own little world. "It's so nice to hear that! My boyfriend Yuki. Only the bestest and most beautiful being ever to grace this earth. He's a writer you know, a very famous novelist."

Shindou tilted his head at me. "Does him being gay bother you, Touya?"

"Wh-what? No!" I looked at him. This was a good opportunity. "Does it bother you?"

"He's my cousin. Of course not."

Hmm. I'd have preferred a more specific answer then that. But it gave me hope, if he didn't mind his cousin being gay then maybe-

"Hello! I'm right here! And I'm not gay, the person I'm in love with just happens to be a guy."

My heart skipped and I stared at the other boy. Things seemed to slow down for a second as _"oh, so that's what this is…"_ filled my head. He was smarter then he looked, this cousin of Shindou's.

He caught me looking at him and for some reason he gave a devious smile. I blushed and cleared my throat. "I uh, need to return to the go salon. I was only going to be out for a while."

Shindou looked at me with a strange look in his eye but only said in a reserved kind of voice, "Alright. I'll see you later Touya."

I nodded and turned around, trying not to walk a way too fast. _"The person I'm in love with just happens to be a guy." _ In the end, that's all that mattered, right? Shindou….

"Akira-kun!" I turned and say Shindou's cousin running after me, out of breath.

"Yes, umm…" I couldn't very well call him Shindou, and since I didn't even call Shindou by his first name I couldn't very well call him Shuichi either, so I was rather at a loss as to how to address him.

He looked at me with that same devious smile. "You can call me Sensei."

"What?"

"You, you're in love with my cousin right?"

"_What!" _He couldn't possibly have figured that out in the five minutes we conversed with one another.

"I mean, it's totally obvious. Hikaru's told me about your 'rivalry' with one another, and seeing you just now has convinced me that it's something more then that."

"How dare you-"

"And I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to help you and Hikaru come together."

"make these kinds of-" I stopped and registered what he just said. "What?"

"You and Hikaru. I'm going to make you two into a couple before I leave for home."

"Really?" I asked before I could stop myself.

He flashed a triumphant smile. "Yes! But my cousin is thick as a post so I'm going to have to focus my attention on you, Akira-kun. Thus, you may call me Sensei. I'm going to teach you about the ways of love."

Well. This was certainly unexpected. I examined the other boy. Well, dress sense a side I suppose he looked trustworthy. He was Shindou's cousin right? That must mean he knows the kinds of things that Shindou would want.

And I _needed_ someone to help me out. I needed it really bad. Because I couldn't do this on my own, and I wanted this so very badly. Wanted Shindou.

"Alright." I said slowly, hoping I wasn't getting myself into trouble.

"Yay! Meet me here tomorrow morning at 9 Ok? And bring money."

Maybe I was getting myself into trouble. "Ok…" I grimaced on the word, "Sensei."

Authors Note: Ok, sorry about the loooooong time it took me to update. I was busy/lazy/uninspired. But! To make up for it I'm including TWO chapters. I don't quite think they were worth the wait, but whatever. Hopefully the next one will be.

You know, from the brief three second interaction Ashiwara and Saeki had with each other in the anime, I thought they'd make a cute couple. I'm warped like that.

As an explanation, Shuichi is my _Deus ex Machina_, so to speak. I needed someone to help poor Akira out, and I couldn't really find that in any of the Hikaru no Go characters. I didn't want to make up a character because I myself always hate it when original characters are introduced. I have no idea, I just don't like it. Thus, Shuichi.

To my reviewers (or half of them anyway, I'll do the other half in the second chapter):

Lasaire- Wee, I'm glad you like my attempts at humor. I often wonder if I'm getting it right.

Anyway, I would like the idea of an Omake. Maybe I'll get around to that…

I hope this chapter didn't disappoint.

RBG - Hee, I agree that some lemons are written very, very badly. I suppose it's a talent that's only gifted to a few.

Wherdatcomfrom - Thank you! I do try…

Midnight Insanity - Aww, thanks for going through so much trouble to leave a review… I'm sorry I didn't exactly update "soon" but I suppose late is better then never? Maybe?

Breadbox- Wow, I'm touched that mine's a rare fic you still follow. I hope you didn't give up on me while waiting for a review…

And yeah, where Hikaru got the chest muscles, I have absolutely no idea. I'm sure picking up go stones can be very strenuous sometimes…

Ancient History:laughs: You went and reviewed every chapter! Thank you for that.

Haruka Akira - Ah, the scenes with Hikaru will come soon, I promise


	7. In Which Akira prepares

Chapter Seven

In Which Akira prepares

I waited patiently at the spot that Shindou's cousin (I sill refused to refer to him as 'Sensei' in my thoughts) directed to. My anticipation was mounting as the minutes dragged on and he still wasn't arriving. Did I make a mistake? Was he just playing a big joke on me? Were he and Shindou laughing at me somewhere? Was -

"Akira-kun!" A happy voice called out. I turned my head and saw Shindou's cousin running towards me. I grimaced. His clothes were as appalling as they were yesterday. "Shindou-sensei."

He waved his hand flippantly. "Shuichi-sensei is fine." He gave me a long glance from head to toe. It made me nervous. "Ok. So the first thing we have to deal with is your clothes."

"My clothes?" I blinked, and looked down at what I was wearing. "What's wrong with my clothes?"

Shuichi sputtered. "What's wrong? _What's wrong?_ You look like your mother dresses you. You're wearing a turtleneck and _khakis._ Who wears khakis for God's sake? And I know this is a reoccurring feature. I saw pictures of you in some of your tournaments with Hikaru. You don't actually think you look good in lavender do you? That suit is horrendous."

My anger was mounting, because really, _he_ was certainly not one to be criticizing _my _clothes. But I refrained from saying anything. For one, I still wanted his help. And for another, my mother _did_ pick out my clothes. I play go. I do not shop.

"Alright," I said calmly. "So what would you prefer that I wear."

That evil gleam in his eyes appeared again, and I began to fear that look. "Come with me!" He literally pulled me along the street until we finally entered a store that he liked. I looked around. Then I promptly turned around and tried walking out the door.

Shuichi caught my arm. "Nuh uh. I'm helping you remember? This will help."

"I really, really don't think I'm going to find anything _here_ that will help me." I said through clenched teeth.

"Don't be ridiculous! Of course you will." For the next half hour I stood stiffly in the corner of the store as Shuichi happily flounced across the room. I eyed some of the clothes. Clothing should not come with feathers. Or sequence. I wasn't even sure some of these things should be classified as _clothes._

"Ok Akira-kun! I have some things you can try on now!" Shuichi said happily, returning with his arms filled with clothes.

I was beginning to think I should have ran when I had the chance.

He dragged me into a stall and shoved the first outfit in my hands. I looked down at it and promptly said "no."

"Come on, Akira-kun. You want to be with my cousin right? Do it for him."

I suppressed a long suffering sigh. Motioned for him to leave and a few minutes later after composing myself, set out to start the arduous task of demeaning myself by putting on these….clothes.

It could have been worse, I suppose. Granted, the shorts were so high up my finger tips went far past their edge, but they were decent enough I suppose. The shirt wasn't so bad either… it was just really… shiny. And tight.

Almost as if he had psychic abilities Shuichi threw open the door just as I was about to remove the clothes. "Well that's better!" He said happily.

"What part of this is better?" I muttered.

"Hmmm. You're right. Orange really isn't your color. No good. Try these." He shoved something else in my hands. "For Hikaru."

He closed the door and I wondered just how long that was going to work on me. The pants were longer this time, albeit furry. However, I was absolutely positive that anything made from clear plastic did not constitute as a shirt.

Shuichi pronounced this outfit "no good" as well. And after dressing me up in fishnets, leather, sequins, shirts made from nothing but buckles, pants with holes in inappropriate places, and one outfit made entirely of spandex, I finally threw a fit at the plaid school girl skirt and shirt that didn't go past my chest.

"I refuse! Absolutely refuse! I'm NOT going to be your dress up doll anymore. I'm leaving."

"Don't be like that Akira-kun." Shuichi said in a pleading tone of voice. "We have to buy something. Here, try this last one."

He shoved something into my arms and closed the door before I could leave. I looked down at it and blinked in surprise. I put it on and looked at myself.

The pants were simply jeans. Granted, I'd never worn jeans in my life, but they were rather comfy. Tighter then I was used to in pants, but an improvement over what I'd been trying on. And a simple black tank top completed the outfit. I wanted to cry over the normalcy of it. It definitely wasn't something I'd wear if I had a choice, but I acknowledged the fact that Shindou might prefer something more "casual." Yes. I could buy this. I didn't even think this store carried things like this…

I stopped.

Oh he was _good._

Go player good. I wonder if it runs in the family? I took off the clothes and put my normal ones back on. I opened the door and glared at the other boy. "You never expected me to buy those other clothes, did you?"

Shuichi just smiled innocently at me. "Whatever do you mean, Akira-kun? I thought you looked good in leather."

"Whatever." I shoved the clothes at him. "You're paying." I grumped.

Shuichi just laughed.

"Alright!" Shuichi yelled out cheerfully as we left the store. "First task done. On to the next one! The Date!"

"Date?" I asked, still a little dazed over the horrors of that store. "What date?"

"The date you and my cousin are going to go on, silly."

"We're-" I gulped. "Going on a date?"

"Well, duh. How else did you expect this relationship to go? Unless you were just going to jump him without any preliminaries. Which, while fun, it has always been my opinion that the sex is much better after a date anyway."

"The _what?"_ I yelped.

"Sex. You have condoms right? Hey, who's going to be on top?"

"_WHAT!" _At this point I didn't think my voice could get any higher. My face was burning, and I was positive that I must have been bright red. "There's not going to be, I mean we're not going to, I mean-"

"Oooh. I get it." Shuichi snickered. "Yeah, Ok, I probably should have counted on the fact that anyone who dresses like you is probably still a virgin. Hikaru just mentioned that you had a girlfriend before so I assumed that you had some experience."

"Stop talking. Stop talking right now. And what possible correlation do my clothes have on my," I blushed harder, "experience!" Kami-sama kill me now….

"You can't even say virginity? Man, we're going to have a harder time then I thought." Shuichi rubbed his chin. "And you're going to have to take the initiative, you get that right? Because Hikaru is really dense. I don't think he's even been kissed before. You know how to kiss right?"

"Yes I know how to kiss!" I snapped. I should run. Right now. As fast as I could.

"Good. That's a start. Anyway, you're going to ask him on a date."

"Oh, am I?"

Yes. For this Friday. You're going to take him to the Faire."

"I am."

"Yes. You're going to take him to the Faire and you're going to spend the entire day with him, just hanging out, getting to know him. You'll get your pictures taken together and he'll win you prizes, and in the evening when the fireworks start you're going to put your arm around him and slowly whisper 'I love you' and he'll say it back and then you'll start kissing and soon you'll be back at his apartment making sweet, tender -"

"He doesn't have an apartment." I interrupted, frowning. "And I really don't think it's going to work that way, Shuichi-sensei." I looked at him. "Sensei?" He was staring off all dreamy eyed into space. I sighed. This was the person I chose to help me solve the major crisis of my entire existence? That certainly spoke volumes of how desperate I was. "Sensei!"

"Eh?" He blinked and stared at me, as if trying to remember who I was. "Oh right. Maybe it's too early for those kinds of things. Anyway, you're definitely going to ask him to the Fair, and that will be when you confess your love for him."

"What? I can't do that!" Panic level, rising. "What if he rejects me? What if he wants nothing more to do with me? What if-"

"And what if a comet comes crashing down and kills him right as we speak and you never get the chance to tell him how you feel?" Shuichi asked, raising a brow. "Why waste your time with 'What ifs'? You should go out and assert yourself. _Demand_ what you want."

I quieted. I could be assertive enough when I had stones between my fingers… why couldn't I take what I wanted now? Why was love more complicated then any joseki I ever learned for Go? Life wasn't fair…

Shuichi let out a breath of air. "Fine. I'll lay out the plan for you, OK? All you have to do is ask him out. And then show up. I'll tell you what to do after that."

"Ok." I said, starting to cheer up a little. He was obviously dating someone he was very much in love with, so he must know something about winning over the one you love. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.

Authors Note: Heh heh. That's statement's funny for people who are familiar Gravitation and know about Shuichi and Yuki's relationship.

Anyway, I doubt anyone reads these… which is too bad considering I justify myself here. If I portrayed Shuichi out of character, I'm sorry, I tried my best. I don't like Gravitation as much as Hikaru no Go, so I'm not quite as fanatic about the world. Not that I portray Akira or any of the other characters very in character, but oh well.

Hee. It was fun dressing Akira up though. Someone really needs to do that for him.

To my reviewers:

Andhera- I'm glad you got into it too. 74;

Tsurumaru - Thank you!

Emeraldfire8- Ha, you were the third person to point out the cultural problems with that. But, as I told the others, I fixed it. In the last chapter in fact. I was unaware at the time I wrote, but I know better now. So all is good in the world. More or less. But thanks. I'm slightly scared by this Vanilla video you speak of, but that's Ok.

Quirk othet trade- I continue, slowly, I do continue

Hibiskus- Heh, me writing finally gave me an excuse to procrastinate. I'm glad my fic makes you happy. That makes me happy.

Nozumi Anshin- Yeah, I knew I was setting it up, but oh well. I still stand that they would make a cute couple.

Song Min Dao - Heh, yeah, I know there's unrealistic moments to it, but I think those are the most fun parts to write

DogsruleW- I'm sorry there wasn't a lot of Hikaru fluff in these chapters. Next chapter though, definitely next chapter!


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